All posts tagged: Siena

With school starting in less than a week, I’ve got unpacking, packing, and moving on my mind which consequently means the end to my travels abroad for the summer of 2014. Through ups and downs, but wait, no downs; it has been a great opportunity in every way possible. To conclude my trip, I can’t wait to sum up all my faves from the past 6 weeks. So for those looking to travel Italy or those just curiously reading, enjoy! Best Gelato – This is a toss-up. Not only did I get to try the best awarded Nocciola gelato of 2014 in San Gimignano, but I discovered other flavours that blew me away; and lucky for me a few weren’t far from home! The chain Amorino, which I visited in Milan, had an amazing selection and incredible depth to their flavours. Their salted caramel definitely came out on top! Being a HUGE salted caramel fan, I can get a little picky at times, but I had no critiques, absolutely perfect! The Gelateria delle Olmo in …

A whole “semester” gone already; it’s hard to believe that five whole weeks have flown by in Italia. I could go on and on about the goodbyes I had to say, but none of them were truly goodbye. The amazing thing about this experience is that the people I got to know and become great friends with are people who live in the same city as I do; this was a mere opportunity to get to know one another in a different place. So to those reading this from our summer abroad program, I will see you all very soon! Enough with the goodbyes, and onto new places! After finishing classes on Thursday, my parents and I whisked off to Pisa for some lunch and a visit to this leaning tower I had never heard of before (kidding). But this was only a stop in our journey to Monterosso, part of the Cinque Terre region. With plans of hiking along the coast on Friday, we were in need of some good Ligurian food to get …

Since I last wrote things in Siena have been nuts, of course all induced by the famous Palio that takes places twice a year. A tradition stemming from medieval times, the Palio di Siena consists of a grueling horse race around the Piazza del Campo where 10 of the 17 contradas (neighbourhoods) take part. The only comparison I can give to those who haven’t witnessed the Palio would be to like winning the Stanley Cup (sorry Toronto, I know it’s very hard to imagine). The people of Siena dress up in traditional clothing and spend countless night’s prepping and celebrating the coming event. Having been stopped multiple times in the street myself, the various parades of horses, jockeys, and other contrada members halt traffic in any direction and will go at any length (including violently throwing children out of the way, I’m fully serious) to keep their front runners free of any interceptions. On Friday I was stopped around the piazza by this parade which included a bull-drawn carriage that was bringing up the rear …

I left for Paris almost two weeks ago, excited as ever to revisit my favourite city. I had restaurants, sites, and museums all planned out in order to make my short visit worthwhile, and was it ever! Although interspersed with tons of tourist destinations, I tried to do more exploring of the city in parts I hadn’t before to get a better sense of the feeling beyond the thousands of tourists. Of course on my list of to-do’s in Paris were some of the must-sees of the foodie world including Café de Flore and Ladurée. I’d had French bistro and macarons many times before, but I needed to try out what people consider to be the originals, the classics. The salad I had at Café de Flore blew me right over! The Salade de Flore had a perfectly creamy dressing with ham and emmantal cheese. Very simple, but the combination was perfect. I was worried about the creaminess with the cheese and all, but I figured I should trust the masters. It was one of …